AUSTRALIAN governments have increased their surveillance of citizens' internet usage over the past six months, according to new figures released by Google.

In the first six months of 2012, governments and their agencies made 523 requests to access Google users' data, including information contained in Gmail and YouTube accounts.

That was the ninth highest number of requests in the world over the same period, with the US recording the most (7969), India second with 2319 requests and Brazil third with 1566.

The figures, contained in Google's latest Transparency Report, show a steady rise in the number of requests for access from Australian governments since it first began publishing the data in July 2009.

Most of the requests in 2012 were from law enforcement agencies for use in criminal investigations, Google said.

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